Hello, my name is Michael and my wife and I discovered the ice cream bean fruit while on vacation in Maui. I had 3 seeds from the fruit we found and planted 2 of them right in the ground where we found the fruit then put one in my pocket for a souvenir. the seed stayed in a bag for a week after we got home to Colorado Springs CO and when I looked at it there was sprouting. my wife absolutely loves the taste of the fruit and so I planted the seed and it has grown to about a foot tall with two stalks and lots of leaves (6 months old). I have found no one locally who I can ask questions about this fruit/tree and very few around here have even heard of the fruit. I don't think the tree will live outside as we live at 6700 ft. and winter temps can get to 10 degrees or so. I am in desperate need of information on how to grow the tree indoors (can it be trimmed and kept to 7 ft while still producing fruit), soil type, moisture level, fertilizer (if any), hours of sunlight, how to increase fruit production. etc, etc. the internet searches show some info on CA, AZ and FL plants but it is limited and mostly people selling seedlings or just talking about their trees. I found out that you cannot buy the fruit from Hawaii since it cannot be shipped to the mainland but I am wondering if there is a possibility of buying fruit from someone here on the mainland, possibly an individual or farmers market. If there is anyone willing to share their knowledge and/or possibly their fruit we would greatly appreciate the advice.

Hello mikeandjulie, Plantogram.com & toptropicals.com are some online sources for the Ice Cream bean. There are also a couple of Ebay dealers that are selling the plant as well. I was given a Pacay(Inga feuillei) seedling, the close cousin of the Ice Cream bean, from Nullzero. It's been growing steadily.